Olympic security officer shot in the head after wrong turn into slum

Elite special forces raided a slum in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday after officers providing security at the Olympics made a wrong turn and encountered gunfire. One police officer was shot in the head and was recovering at a local hospital.

The officers from Brazil’s national security force were using a GPS device to navigate unfamiliar streets when they took a wrong turn off a highway leading to Rio’s international airport. Their truck was sprayed with bullets, and one officer, Helio Vieira, was shot in the head. The Justice Ministry said Vieira was recovering after a four-hour surgery, and was in stable condition. The other officers suffered minor injuries when the windows of their vehicle shattered.

Dozens of heavily armed commandos could be seen Thursday frisking residents and going house to house in the Mare complex of slums, one of Rio’s most crime-ridden areas that is dominated by drug-trafficking gangs. Snipers took up positions on a nearby highway, as a low-flying police helicopter circled overhead.

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Image courtesy of AP